GOOD NEWS – MEA RESTORES FLOATING HOLIDAY LEAVE TIME FOR MEMBERS ON AN ALTERNATE WORK SCHEDULE!

Recently it came to MEA’s attention that the City was not following MEA’s 2021-2023 MOU for employees that do not work a standard 8-hour workday.

Some members that work 9-hour days or longer, were only receiving 8 hours of Floating Holiday credit when taking time off.  This means the City was forcing them to use their own time to make up for the extra hours which goes against what MEA negotiated in MOU Article 47 which stated:

B. Floating Holiday.

In each fiscal year covered by the term of this MOU each eligible employee available for a duty assignment on July 1 (as defined in Personnel Manual Index Code H-2) shall accrue credit for hours of holiday time equal to the hours worked in the employee’s shift up to ten hours. Each employee accruing such time shall schedule their floating holiday to comply with the following conditions:

1. The floating holiday must be a one-time absence and it must be used before June 30 of the fiscal year it was earned; and

2. The floating holiday must be taken at a time convenient to the employee’s Appointing Authority.

MEA has successfully worked to have the City give that time back!

MEA and the City have identified approximately 700 members (full-time and half-time) who will have their time restored into their Annual Leave bank.  A majority of those 700 members will be receiving one or two hours back, but in total MEA has restored over 1,000 hours of leave time to employees through this effort.

The City will be notifying those employees who were impacted via email regarding how many hours they are getting back next week.

MEA is still working with the City to identify whether or not this issue occurred prior to FY2022, and will update with more information if there are other reimbursements that need to be made.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to your Labor Relations Officer here at MEA by calling 619-264-6632 or emailing us at info@sdmea.org.